[3830] ARRLDX CW K0DXC SOAB(A) LP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: K0DXC
Operator(s): K0DXC
Station: K0DXC

Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: Jackson, OH
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    6     6
   80:   49    33
   40:  106    55
   20:  159    77
   15:   45    31
   10:    3     3
-------------------
Total:  368   205  Total Score = 224,475

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

Rig: IC-756PROIII
Antenna's: 6BTV Vertical, DX-B Sloper @ 35 feet

The week leading up to the contest was a very eventful one. At school on
Thursday someone from the high school came to visit everyone at the middle
school and told us that we all have less then a week to decide what classes we
want to take in high school next year before we have to register for them. He
talked about the requirements for graduating high school, and he talked about
going to college and about affording tuition, getting scholarships, ect. This
made me think very hard about what I want to do for a living when I grow
up....

If everything were to work out according to my "plans" I hope to play
professional baseball, but I'm going to think reality and choose my "second
option". I would like to do something that relates to Amateur Radio, I'll
probably become an electrical engineer of some kind. On the other hand, most
people in my family are telling me to become a lawyer. If anyone has any type
of advice for me, please send me an email; I would appreciate it.

Sorry for being so off topic! Anyways, back to the contest!

My goal in the ARRL DX CW this year was to work countries. I didn't care about
QSO total, I just wanted to work as many different countries as I could because
I am close to getting my DXCC confirmed via LoTW. Hopefully it will confirm
itself within the next week. I know that I worked many new entities in the
contest.

Because of my goal, I entered the "assisted" category to help me find mults. I
probably would have been better off SOAB LP because I only had Telnet access
for about 6-7 hours during the contest. 

I did not run at all. I only had 7 QSO's that were made by CQing. The other 361
Q's I made were search and pounce. Hopefully by next year I have a beam up so I
can start running stations.

DX contests are my favorite type of contest, but I just wish I could break the
pileups!

20 meters was my best band. I was able to work most EU stations first call
going about 30wpm. I also worked the most countries on 20, I am content with
77.... for this year. :)

I was pleasantly surprised on Friday evening when I worked my first EU stations
on 160 meters from my new QTH in Ohio! The angle of my sloper is not very steep
so normally it only works good for USA QSO's. However, ON4UN has FB ears
(probably FB receive antennas as well :) ) and he was able to pull me out of
the noise. I find it ironic that ON4UN was one of my grandpa's first EU 160
QSOs, and he was my first EU 160 QSO as well.

It was nice to see 10 meters show some signs of life. I am lucky to have worked
3 countries on 10 meters with my vertical. I hope that 10 meters starts opening
up more in the near future! Are the sun spots finally coming?!

I was also delighted to experience a short EU opening on 15 meters early Sunday
morning. This was good for about 9 new countries on 15. For most of the weekend,
KP2M was POUNDING into SE Ohio 50 OVER 9 on 15!!! I thought he was a local! :)
6Y1LZ was very loud as well. I was also very impressed with TI5N's QRP signal.
Even on 10 meters I could hear him! Must have excellent antennas! 

80 meters was a little bit of a struggle. After a weak performance out of my
sloper on Friday night I decided to go outside on Sunday afternoon and
"steepen" the slopers angle. I succeeded in doing this but I also lowered it's
total elevation from about 35 feet to 25 feet. Because of this I did not see
much of an improvement in it's performance on Saturday night. Thank you to PA0O
and OH4A for sticking with my ESP signal and pulling me out of the noise on
Sunday evening. :)

K5D entered the contest on 40 meters right before the end of the contest! Sure
enough, the whole WORLD was calling them at about 7075.0 20 minutes before the
contest ended. I have already worked them on 40 CW so I didn't bother trying.
Before the contest I thought K5D said they would NOT be operating in the ARRL
DX and they would be focusing on giving out SSB and RTTY contacts? Apparently
they changed their mind and decided to give out a new multiplier to a few lucky
stations. 

Because I wasn't putting in a "all out effort" I spent some time listening to
the live audio coming out of K5ZD's stations. It was a lot of fun and I learned
from it. I have never listened in on SO2R before, and the experience I got from
listening to K5ZD makes me really anxious to try SO2R out for myself. 

Anyways, thanks for all the fun guys! I'll be around in the ARRL DX SSB just to
pass out another Q to some of the big guns. :)

73,
Cal, K0DXC


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